EVENING. Business.

Edison To Pay $3 Million To Settle Women's Discrimination Suit

December 29, 1993

Commonwealth Edison said Wednesday it will pay $3 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the utility discriminated against hiring women in the 1980s.

Under a consent decree, Edison will pay $3 million to certain women who weren't hired for meter reading jobs and will finance a $300,000 training program for women interested in nuclear plant operating and other technical jobs. The decree doesn't place any hiring quotas on the Chicago-based utility.

Edison said the settlement, entered in U.S. District Court in Chicago by Judge George Marovich, isn't an admission of guilt but was done to avoid costly legal fees.

The suit, filed by the EEOC in 1988, alleged that Edison hired disproportionately fewer women as meter readers during the 1980s. Edison argued that from 1981 to 1989, it hired 148 women meter readers, "although at certain Edison locations only a few women were hired during the 1980s."

The utility agreed to pay a total of $3 million to women who applied but were turned down for meter reading positions at any Edison location from December 1981 to the end of 1985 and at certain locations from 1987 to 1989.

The suit also alleged that a pre-employment test for plant operators used at Edison nuclear power plants discriminated against women.